My EJing continues at a modest pace. I had a darker 7p 2a 7t waiting for me when I got home from the B75. I really want to like the blade. It's small and light, soft but stiff, and has great control in warmups. But when I played sets with it I completely sucked. Not sure if it is worth a longer try, or just re-sell and move on.

On a happier ej note, I bought a sheet of nittaku fastarc g-1, because Mima Ito . Traditionally I try one non-tenergy rubber a year, hate it, and continue with t05. But I kind of like the fastarc. It is spinny and serves stay short more easily. It also has a lower throw, but one I can live with. And it is definitely easier to flat smack the ball with fastarc than with t05. I didn't do drills with it yet. That will give a better read on consistency and shot quality. But for the first time I have a non-tenergy forehand rubber that I don't immediately want to peel off and put in the trash.

I have tournaments the next two Saturdays, my first with SP. I expect to do badly, but you never don't know, as my cousin David used to say. I'll post some video here regardless.

_________________Table tennis, as we find it, is far too hard for us. It brings too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks.

Here is a different full match vs a stronger player. Afterwards he said he hated my BH block (the SP) enough to stop playing into it. That has promise. Unfortunately it was outweighed by my FH being awful. I haven't watched the slow motion yet, but I'm pretty sure I was out of balance and position 90% of the time. I guess that's what better players do to you.

Played a giant RR on Saturday. I was 8-2 as the 8th seed and will cross 1900 heading up for the first time. So that's all good.

These two tournaments back-to-back I have been working on managing my intensity level. One coach at B75 commented that I was so excited during drills and practice games that I was burning a ton of energy keeping my emotional level that high, and to consider if it was helping my play or hurting. The last few of these long giant RRs I have been tired for the last two or three matches, which I excused away by saying I'm old, etc. But at camp I can train five hours and then play 20 - 30 sets at night, 17 days in a row, the age excuse must be bogus. Last week I stayed a bit too calm. I didn't get angry, which was good, but I didn't really fight to win matches either. This week I got pretty upset twice, but for good reasons. And I was able to think clearly during sets, while still fighting pretty hard to win. And I made it through ten matches, 38 sets, with plenty of energy left. This is progress, but it will take maybe 6 or 8 more tournaments of doing it right to feel confident that bad habits have been broken.

Here is my best win Saturday. This guy is not a standard looper, but his game is very effective. He is also a fantastic person. We only ever meet at tournaments, almost always go to five close sets, and it is always a https://youtu.be/5GAKoBy1Q0s

Some things I want to emphasize in training after watching this and several other matches are serve recovery, and arm position on my pendulum serve. My recovery is much better than it was two years ago, but it's still bad. Just bad at a higher level than before. I must start hopping out instead of stepping. The way I do it will never be fast enough. And the arm position is something I see in every video but never fix. My elbow is not high so the swing is more to the back of the ball instead of the side. This makes sidespin serves more likely to go long. That should be an easy fix, but it hasn't been so far.

The other thing I'd like to work on is a linked set of swing and movement problems. I step too far with the right foot instead of two stepping, I jump into fh loops, my fh swing is too much shoulder, I stand up between shots, and I drop the bat below table height even after the play changes to topspin. That's way too much different stuff to try to fix in the very small time I get to train. So I think I will just work on keeping the bat high. I can do that using transition drills when my friend feeds multiball, and also with the returnboard. That change should help a few ways, with blocking and also making my swing go more backwards and forwards than down and up. And it will be hard enough to fix that one simple error. If I see progress on that and the serve stuff by the big February tournaments I'll be really happy.

_________________Table tennis, as we find it, is far too hard for us. It brings too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks.

This year they have added a fourth coach in each group to do video analysis. The coach/player ratio will be 1:4. Last year they started using written individual development plans, and combining those with video is really powerful.

For example I’ve always known my fh short push is rubbish. I thought I didn’t know the right stroke technique. But I can do it fine in training, so I had no way to improve it. A coach showed me on video that in matches the stroke is okay, but I step around the table instead of underneath. My right foot goes off the corner and I’m too far back and have to stretch for the ball, so I pop it up.

It was never improving because I had a totally wrong idea of the problem. Later I was playing a practice match for fun after training, and I missed another fh short push. When I looked down my foot was right where he had showed me on the video, just outside the right corner. So now that I understand what is actually happening, I can practice and fix it. That will eliminate a big weakness for me.

Everybody who has used video knows how much more you understand after you see yourself playing or training. But looking at it with a really experienced coach is another level entirely.

The link I posted at the top has all the cost and schedule details, and a lot more about the learning system, which is unique. I won’t repeat all that here. But if anyone has any questions please post them or PM me. I’ll be going again this year, and every year. I love it.

_________________Table tennis, as we find it, is far too hard for us. It brings too much pain, too many disappointments, impossible tasks.

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